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Welcome! This is intended to be a friendly, medium-traffic collection of lists about information relevant to the residents of Framingham, Mass. Discussion has ranged from politics to restaurants to schools to questions about home repair. Find out about some of the list members at the Cast of Characters page.

frambors lists serves as a forum for residents, neighbors and friends of the town of Framingham, Mass. It is not affiliated with the Town of Framingham.

Section A Purpose

A0. So. What are all these lists for?

A1. What are the posting requirements of the different lists?

A2. What should I subscribe to?

A3. So what are the rules for cross-posting?

A4. Can you create a new list for me?

A5. But what are all these lists for?

Section B Administrivia

B0. How do I subscribe to or unsubscribe from the list?

B1. Is it OK to post html ("rich text") messages to the list?

B2. I want to change something about my subscription, and I don't have my list password. How do I get it?

B3. I have a new e-mail address, and I'd like to switch my subscription. How do I do it?

B4. What can I change about my list subscription?

B5. I'd like to disable mail delivery for a little while without unsubscribing. How do I do it?

B6. There are too many messages on this list! What can I do?

B7. How do I switch between regular mode and digest mode?

B8. How do I set up mail filtering rules for the various lists?

B9. Why am I getting duplicate messages?

B10. It feels like I just joined a long conversation already in progress. How can I catch up?

B11. Can I get a virus from any of frambors lists?

B12. How many posts a day are there? Who posts the most? How many people subscribe and unsubscribe?

B13. Where did these questions come from and how can I add to them and make them better?

B14. How do I see the list of subscribers on the list?

B15. What are the rules of engagement during an election?

B16. What happens to rejected messages?

B17. So what email addresses do I need to know?

Section C Community

C1. Is this list moderated?

C2. What are these lists good for?

C3. What is this list not so good for?

C4. What is an inappropriate posting?

C5. What are some tips for writing better e-mail?

C6. How many subscribers are there?

C7. What is the privacy policy of the list?

C8. Are commercial postings allowed?

Section A Purpose

• tmm (Town Meeting Members)
• frambors (Framingham Neighbors)
• framcom (Framingham Community)
• man-bytes-man
• p1tmm (Precinct 1 Town Meeting Members)

The purposes of the different lists are listed:

• tmm (Town Meeting Members). This list is only open to elected and appointed officials of the Town of Framingham. This includes from our State Sentator to the members of the Framingham Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Committee. If you're elected or appointed, then you're invited to be subscribed. (Almost) all other lists are open to all. The point is to provide a forum for Town Meeting Members to help them do a better job at Town Meeting by making them better informed before it convenes. Even if you're a member of some other Board or Commission or Committee, you're encouraged to subscribe because your input should be known to the rest of us.

  The method of subscribing to tmm is the same as subscribing to all other lists, except for one administrative detail: We must know who you are. Before subscribing, you need to send with your name, address, phone number, email address and elected and appointed titles.

• frambors (Framingham Neighbors). This is open to all residents for the express purpose of informing people about what is going on in the Town that is government related. We routinely report on what public hearings are about to happen and the results of those hearings. All issues that should be known to the public of a government nature are fair game. Discussion of candidates is specifically not allowed. The exception is that announcements of a political nature are allowed. e.g., There will be a rally for this candidate, or there will be a fundraiser for that candidate.

  frambors tries to break messages into three different categories: Announcements of what is going on, discussion and questions on the issues, and chat. Chat is messages that are unworthy of going to many hundreds of people and includes personal replies, thank you's, and things that most people would prefer not getting in their mail as being too trivial or not contributing to substantive discussion. Of the three, chat is not allowed.

• framcom (Framingham Community) This list is pretty much wide open to whatever does not fit into any of the other categories as long as it is Framingham related. What plumber should I use? Anyone know who this dog belongs to? What's playing at the Common this Friday? Commercial postings are legal by an individual but not than once a year. (See section C7 below).
• man-bytes-man is open to all for the purpose of discussing anything. Civility is required but you are allowed to discuss any topic.
• p1tmm (Precinct 1 Town Meeting Members). 'Nuff said.

A1. What are the posting requirements of the different lists?

The general rule is that people are neither encouraged nor discouraged from posting to a list. You are all highly encouraged to post intelligently. Having said that, here are the groundrules:

If you have information that helps Town Meeting do its job that is of less interest to residents, please post it to tmm.

Anything that concerns residents of a Framingham government nature should go onto frambors.

Anything that is non-government related or less political should go onto framcom.

All the lists are only concerned with Framingham related issues. If you have an issue that involves Framingham because of a more global nature, then it probably does not belong on these lists.

Please identify yourself in the body of the message. It is mandatory. Your message may have your full name in your From line, but not everyone can see it unless it is in the body of the message.

In addition to making your identity known on tmm, we also ask that you identify your title as it is relevant to the discussion. For example, you might hold multiple positions, but one of those might be more relevant to what you are discussing. In such a case, please state at least the most relevant position.

• If you're an elected or appointed official, you should be on tmm. And in addition, if you know someone who should be who isn't, then let that person know about it.
• If you're anyone with email in Framingham, you should be on frambors.
• If you want to hear about non-government community events or anything of interest to your neighbors, please subscribe to framcom.

The set of lists that you should be subscribed to is the union of the above conditions. If you are an official, have an interest in the PUD, and want to hear about all government and non-government issues, you should be subscribed to all four lists.

The rules are as follows:

• You may never send anything to more than one list (e.g., both frambors and framcom). Why you ask? Because the list owners would need to deal with the people who read the message on the first list who do a ReplytoAll and who are not subscribed to both lists. Since people are not allowed to post to a list that they are not subscribed to, then a ReplyToAll will cause a bounce to the list-owner of a message that the replyer is not subscribed to. Make sense?
• Never post anything to frambors and tmm. This is consistent with the previous rule, but further, all people who are Elected Town Meeting Members of the Town of Framingham who are subscribed to frambors are required to also be on the tmm list. If you are a TMM and want to only be on the tmm list, that's ok. But if you want to be on frambors, then you are required to also be on tmm.
• The majordomo-owner is allowed to violate these two previous rules. It is expected that when he does, people will not ReplytoAll.

We certainly can. Here are a few valid purposes that we have in mind, but please don't be shy about getting creative:

• A list for the different Precinct TMMs.
• A list for the Standing Committees.
• A list for people to hear about results of those committees.
• A list for individual neighborhoods.
• A list for individual projects in the Town (e.g, the PUD).

Now we get to the crucial question. Framingham government didn't used to be as good as it is today. As a matter of fact, some of the events that transpired were regrettable. I've only been here since '95 so I never saw how bad or good it was. But the point is that people tend to do better when everyone is better informed. This system of mailinglists is designed to be a great big flashlight to shed light on what's happening.

Section B Administrivia

To unsubscribe, you'll need your list password. If you don't have it, please see B2 below for instructions on how to get it. Then go to http://steveo.syslang.net/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr and click on the "Unsubscribe or Change Settings" button at the top or bottom of the page. Enter the e-mail address under which you are subscribed and the "Sign in" radio button and then hit "Go". This will take you to a page with your settings for each list that you are subscribed to. This list of settings includes an option to unsubscribe.

B1. Is it OK to post html ("rich text") messages to the list? Sure! But the list software filters out all the formatting and delivers only the plain text part of your message. This keeps the digest version from becoming cluttered with HTML, and prevents viruses from being transmitted via the list. Also, please note that when you compose your messages using characters that do not map to plain text, the result is that you will see such characters translated to something that you might not have intended. (Sometimes that can be a question mark.) If you want to know in advance exactly what it will look like before you send it, your best bet is to configure your mailer so that it just sends plain text.

B2. I want to change something about my subscription and I don't have my list password. How do I get my password? Go to http://steveo.syslang.net/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr click on the button at the top or bottom of the page that says "Sign in". Just fill in your email address and click the radio button that says "I forgot my password". Then click on the "Go" button. You will soon receive a message asking you to confirm the fact that someone is requesting your secret password. You need to confirm that request. (Instructions on how to confirm will be included in the email.) Once your request is confirmed, your password will be e-mailed to you. It may take a few minutes for it to arrive.

B3. I have a new e-mail address and I'd like to switch my subscriptions. How do I do it? (Note: if these instructions seem daunting, please feel free to and we'll take care of it for you.)

You'll need your list password for the old subscription in order to proceed. If you don't have it, please see B2 above for instructions on how to get it.

To switch your subscription, got to http://steveo.syslang.net/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr and hit the "Unsubscribe or Change Settings" button at the top or bottom of the page. Almost at the bottom of the page will be an option called "Changing your Address". Just fill in your address and click on "changeaddr". You will then receive confirmation instructions.

Send a message to to see all of the documentation on the set command by saying


in the body of the message.

There is no web interface to do this. Instead, you need to send commands to .

approve PASSWORD set LISTNAME vacation-4d

This will turn your delivery off for four days.

approve PASSWORD set LISTNAME vacation-1m

This will turn your delivery off for one month.

If you get back early and want to turn your delivery back on, just say:

approve PASSWORD set LISTNAME vacation-return

For full doucmentation send a message to and say
help set
in the body of the message.

With digests, you get a few big messages each day (usually one) that contain all the messages for that day, instead of getting them as individual messages throughout the day. You enable digests by changing an option on your list subscription. See B7 for details.

With filtering into folders, you direct all List messages automatically into a specific mail folder on your computer, instead of having them interspersed throughout your general mail in-box. You set this up in a way specific to your mail client or service (AOL, Eudora, Outlook Express, Yahoo Mail, HotMail, etc). B8 will soon contain instructions for setting up filtering into folders on many of the popular mail clients and services.

There are advantages to each method, but filtering into folders is best, if you're willing to take a bit more trouble to set it up.

There are two kinds of digests. MIME digests and text digests. When you receive the list as text digests, you can no longer treat each message as an individual e-mail for surgical deletion and other operations. Replying to a digest message works if want to post a reply to the list, but the subject of the reply becomes something like [frambors] RE: frambors digest, Vol 1 #318 - 28 msgs". It's easy enough to change that manually to the true subject, but if you forget, or type it wrong, your readers may not realize which message you are replying to. Also, with digests, there's no convenient way to reply to the sender rather than the whole List. You'll have to copy and paste the recipient's e-mail address, or use another method.

Filtering into folders automatically places all your List messages into one or more specific, segregated places (folders) on your own system or account, as soon as each message arrives. There are just as many messages and they arrive all day long, but they aren't cluttering up any other folder, and there aren't any other messages cluttering them up. You can go look at them in their special folders -- or not -- when you choose.

In their special Frambors folder, you can still work with each message as an individual e-mail, and do things like sort and mark the headers, delete individual messages, and whatever features your e-mail system provides. Perhaps most important, you can reply or reply-all to an individual post in the usual way.

Another advantage of not using digests is that you can filter out messages from particular individuals, should you wish to. Again, the method for doing that varies with the mail system you are using.

There's essentially no discernable difference in efficiency between digests and filtering into folders: both take about the same time to download and both occupy about the same amount of disk space.

You'll need your list password to do this. If you don't have it, please see B2 above for instructions on how to get it.

Go to http://steveo.syslang.net/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr Your Delivery Mode is just one of your personal settings. All you need to do it to log in with your password and change the Delivery Mode setting to something else. Your digest choices are the Daily Digest in either index, text or mime format.

If you want to turn digest mode off, follow the above instructions, except choose "each message as it is posted".

(This answer is in the process of being written.)

There are a number of reasons that you could be getting duplicate messages. One possibility is that you are subscribed to more than one list and that an individual message is posted to those multiple lists. Another possibility is that someone is sending a message to a list and Cc'ing you. In that case you will get two copies. Then when people reply using ReplyToAll, the cycle would repeat.

If you are interested in reading back issues of the list, go to http://steveo.syslang.net/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr/ and enter your email address and password, go to the "Unsubscribe or Change Settings" and then click on the info button to the right of the name of the list. From there you will see a list of choices. Click on the one that says Message Archive and you'll be able to read them month by month. If you have forgotten your password, please see B2 above for how to get it.

However, you can get a virus from any individual with whom you correspond by e-mail. So if you correspond with an individual on a list, you may receive a virus from that person. And there are viruses which pretend to be from people who are in the address book of the infected person. So you may receive a virus which appears to be from someone you know from a list, but is really from someone whose address book contained that person. In the same way, other people can get a virus which appears to be from you but is really from someone with whom you've corresponded.

It is also possible to get a virus from a web site, so if you click on a link contained in an e-mail, and you visit the web site that the link points to, and that web site is malicious, you may get a virus that way.

The bottom line: if you subscribe to a list but never correspond with anyone on the list or post to the list, and you never click on any links in e-mails posted through the list, there is no way you can get a virus either from the list or from anyone on the list.

Everyone should take measures to prevent virus infection: running virus-scanning software is one good way to do this.

(Updated 06/22/03)

No idea.

These questions were taken from http://arlingtonlist.org/faq/. They represented a good starting point but it lacks in certain areas because of fundamental differences between what we are and what they are. (e.g., they use different software, they have one list while we have many, etc...)

So, if you see a question that needs to be answered and it's not in here, or if you see information that is wrong because of different municpal relevance, or any other reason at all, please let know so we can fix it.

Send the who command to .

For example:
who frambors

If you really don't want subscribers to see your email address, you have some account settings to assist beyond the default nohide setting.

You can set your account to be in hideaddress mode where your name will be visible but not your email address. You can also set hideall mode where no one will be able to see you from the who command at all except for the list owner.

There are two sets of rules. The first set is what the public is required to follow. The second set is what changes are made to Majordomo to enforce the public rules.

• Public rules.
  • No endorsements are allowed. You may discuss issues but anything that can be construed as favoring a particular candidate will be rejected.
  • The public is allowed to ask questions of the candidates. In case there is any doubt, no personal attacks will be allowed. Of course, the candidates are allowed and encouraged to answer. If a question is not answered by a candidate, the same question may not be repeated. Consider it asked and answered.
• Public and Candidate Rules.
  • No campaigning is allowed. Period. Discuss issues. Answer questions. Announce events. If it seems like you are blowing your own horn then it is not allowed.

  • Candidates and the public are allowed to make political announcements. Examples of things that are of an announcement nature might be "I am running", "I am holding a fundraiser", or "I have a website to provide information".

    Whenever possible, the operator of frambors will provide hosting for anyone's webpage if they do not have access of their own facilities.

• Changes to Majordomo.
  • Majordomo will be temporarily modified to cause moderation to occur if a message contains any candidate's name or email address for both frambors and framcom.
  • All candidates will be supervised.

The sender is notified with a reason or reasons why and copies are sent to a list of people who voluntarily sign up to see the rejections. This is called the frammod list (for frambors moderators). Sometimes people think that the decision to reject their post is arbitrary and want to complain. That's why we have frammod. Feel free to respond if you disagree or do not understand. Any discussion of your rejected message will not be allowed on any list other than on frammod, since, by definition, the discussion of why a message is rejected is just as inappropriate as the content of a rejected message.

Here's how it works. Every list has three addresses.

• The first is and that is the email address that you send to for the purpose of sending a message to the millions of subscribers. For example, to send a message to all of the subscribers on frambors, just send to
• The second is and that is where you send a message to the Majordomo2 robot to ask it to do something for you. For example, to put yourself in digest mode on the frambors list, you would send a message to and in the body of the message give the command to be placed in digest mode.
• The third address is which is a guaranteed way to reach the owner of the list in question.

Section C Community

No, not in the technical sense of "moderated", which would mean that there is someone approving each and every message to the list. We manage the list, which means that we deal with subscriptions and answer questions, but we normally do not exercise any control over the content of the list as long as what people say conforms to the rules for what is allowed.

Having said that, we do have certain controls available which we make use of:

• We can cause messages with predefined text, either in the headers or the body, to trap to us for approval. This allows us to shut off an entire topic if it is inappropriate.
• We can cause individuals' messages to trap to us for approval. Some people are supervised for a short period and some are on for life. There is no stigma associated with being supervised. The point of explaining it is that you may see something from someone that is inappropriate, but once it happens you will hopefully not see anything inappropriate from that person again. Feel free to complain to us but never complain to the list. Also, complaints to the list will be deleted according to the rules of moderation described above.
• All new subscribers will start out in a supervised state. If they ever post a message and it is done correctly then the supervision is discontinued.
• In addition, anyone who runs the list is supervised.

Occasionally, it happens that non-members will try to post messages to the list without first subscribing. Those messages are sometimes ill advised, since they are sent without benefit of much knowledge about the list. When this happens, we suggest that the sender join the list first, read it for a while, and then decide whether they still want to send their message.

• Asking for recommendations for plumbers, electricians, masons, and the like.
• Discussing town politics, current news and events, schools, and other Framingham-related issues.
• Finding and providing housing in Framingham.
• Selling or giving away used stuff.
• Advertising concerts, plays, dances, etc., which either take place in Framingham, or involve Framingham residents.
• Announcing breaking town news.
• Finding other people in town who are interested in the same things you are.

The lists cover a wide range of topics. You will almost certainly find that some topics interest you more than others. You should skip over or delete messages or topics that don't interest you. Doing so will probably make the list much more interesting and useful to you. Don't be surprised if some days nothing seems of interest -- topics you find more relevant will probably crop up again in a day or two.

Here are a few of the things that we'd all be better off if you didn't do. Nothing significantly bad will happen if you do them anyway, but you'll probably get some complaints from other list members.

• Making personal attacks on other list members.
• Reposting to the list an e-mail you received privately, whether signed or unsigned, without the author's permission. For the purpose of this guideline, "private" means "not posted to these lists."
• Publishing a list posting in a public location, such as a website or online forum, whether signed or unsigned, whether copied privately to you or not, without the author's permission. Note that forwarding a list message via private e-mail without the author's permission is okay, though it is considered good e-mail etiquette to ask first.
• Posting messages which are not signed with your real name. If you'd like people on the list to take you and your words seriously, please sign the message with your real name.
• Forwarding virus warnings to the list. This almost always causes more confusion than clarity.
• Posting messages that don't have anything to do with Framingham. However, if you're creative, you can make just about any message have something to do with our wonderful town! If it truly does, that's fine -- but this doesn't mean that you should start or continue discussions, especially on controversial topics, that are not related fairly directly to Framingham. Have those discussions in private, not on the list.
• Carrying on long, heated arguments with one or two other people. These really would be better off in private e-mail (off-list).
• Carrying on highly technical discussions about computers, networking, and the Internet. (But messages of general interest are fine.)

In addition, the following are not allowed.

• We do not allow discussion of who we like or do not like as candidates for elected office. It's a quagmire. On the other hand, announcements of a political nature are allowed. For example, an announcement that you are running for an office, or an announcement of a fundraiser or of a webpage to provide information is acceptable.

• Making personal attacks on other list members anywhere online, including the list, a website, or any other online forum. Personal attacks, name-calling, "flames", anger, sarcasm, "trashing" of or unfounded accusations about individuals or organizations, etc., are destructive to the list and the community it seeks to create, and are never permitted. Critiques of others' character or unstated motivations are also prohibited. Judgment as to what constitutes an attack, a flame, etc. rests with the list owner.
• Reposting to the list an e-mail you received privately, whether signed or unsigned, without the author's permission. For the purpose of this guideline, "private" means "not posted to a fram* list."
• Publishing a list posting in a public location, such as a website or online forum, whether signed or unsigned, whether copied privately to you or not, without the author's permission. Note that forwarding a list message via private e-mail without the author's permission is permitted under the list's privacy policy, though it is considered good e-mail etiquette to ask first.
• Please make your posting have the value of substantively contributing to the discussion. If someone expresses an opinion, then simply agreeing with the previous person is of no value unless you can amplify on why you agree or do not agree. Posts which are not more than simple agreements even have a name. We call them MEETOOs.
• personal
• Never post an article that you found that you think other people would want to read unless you supply some sort of commentary on what you feel is important about that article. ever post the text of an article if you can post a link instead.
• Never post the text of an article if you can post a link instead. Think of it as being kind to our mail server.

If you do one of the above things, you're just about guaranteed to get e-mail from me asking you not to do it any more. If this happens, I'll also tell you that if you keep doing it, you're subject to being put on list probation for a month. Being on list probation means that all your postings will have to be individually approved by me until the probation is over.

We don't like policing the list and we'd rather not have to do it, so please just don't do any of the above inappropriate things. We also don't claim to be perfectly objective, or perfect in any other way, and we don't always read every single message on the list. But we do have some firm ideas about what makes for a good list, and we think they're pretty good ideas.

A note to the press:

• "http://frambors.syslang.net"
• "frambors.syslang.net"

There are regular references to frambors in newspaper articles and it is important that when those references occur they explicitly provide the necessary information instead of referring to, for example, "a local email loop", or "a local Framingham mailinglist".

Your cooperation is both expected and appreciated.

The principles that guide these tips are simple: we want our e-mail list to be interesting, civil, and manageable. Interesting means posts that are on-topic and make for good reading. Civil means posts that treat list members with respect, though it doesn't rule out a good argument once in a while. Manageable means fewer e-mails are better than more if they say the same thing. We all have enough noise in our lives. Posts that simply agree with a previous message without contributing anything new to the discussion are called MEETOOs and are not welcome.

PLEASE EDIT YOUR POST. When you reply to a message, please don't quote the entire previous message. Please take an extra few seconds to edit the amount of quoted material down to the bare minimum so that your reply will make sense. This especially helps the digest version of the list, where one long reply thread might fill a whole digest message.

REMOVE THE UNSUBSCRIBE INSTRUCTIONS FROM A REPLY This is very important. The mailinglist software traps all messages that contain embedded commands, even if those commands are inadvertant. The word "unsubscribe" is a valid Majordomo command. So, if you don't remove the instructions from the bottom of the message, the message will automatically reject and your message will be sent back to you.

CONSIDER ASKING FOR REPLIES TO GO TO YOU. If you're asking for a contractor reference, for example, you might consider asking people to e-mail you directly and offering to summarize the results. When you do this, you provide a very helpful service to the entire list, because you consolidate all the useful info into one message which can be saved if it's of interest, or skipped if it's not.

ASK YOURSELF: WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE? Think about whether your message is of interest to the whole list, or just the person you're replying to. If it's just the person you're replying to, consider sending it just to that person rather than the whole list. Note that when you reply to a list message, by default your reply will go to the individual person; if you want it to go to the whole list, you'll need to edit the "To:" field of your reply. In any case, please note who your reply is going to and make it a conscious decision.

TAKE A DEEP BREATH. Did someone just say something that annoyed the $#@! out of you? Don't you just want to write back to the whole list and tell them what you really think of them? Well, go ahead and write it! Just don't send it for a few hours or a day. Re-read it before you send it. Rewrite it so it's civil. We'll all appreciate your efforts.

don't write in all capital letters. IT'S COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS SHOUTING. PEOPLE WHO READ IT WOULD ALWAYS PREFER TO READ MESSAGE THAT CAPITALIZE IN A PROPER FASHION. There. Isn't that better?

WHEN IN DOUBT, ASK. we're happy to answer questions of style, form, etiquette, or even spelling :-)

C6. How many subscribers are there?

As of June 2008, there were about 1090 subscribers on frambors and 1025 on framcom. There were 860 who were on both.

frambors had one special person, Bob Moore, who was designated with the special status of weekly columnist. This meant that whatever rules all of the rest of us have to follow do not apply. Bob could say anything he wanted about any candidate who's running or any topic that may or may not apply to the list. If you don't want to read it, just hit the Delete key. You may or may not agree with his views but you have to respect his perspective.

Bob is retired from writing, but anyone who would like to take over the job of being the official frambors columnist should let us know.

You can read all of Bob's past columns here.

Here is the current privacy policy of the list. It describes your rights to your postings, the way the list software handles your private information such as your e-mail address, and the topic of anonymity.

Definitions:

• List owner: the person who runs the list, plus anyone who is designed to run the list while the list owner is on vacation or otherwise unavailable.
• Lurker: one who subscribes to the list but has never posted a message.
• Post: to send a message to the whole list by e-mailing the message to a syslang.net list
• Subscription: your voluntary agreement to receive list messages
• Subscription information: your e-mail address and certain preferences such as whether you receive individual messages or digest messages

Your privacy is mostly under your control. Note that you do not have to provide your real name to subscribe to the list, but you are required to sign your postings with your real name. Messages must have your name in the body of the message. Your full name in the From line is not enough because some people have mailers that won't display the full name.

The would like you to provide your name, address and phone number for the purpose of being able to make contact if there are problems with mail delivery. This information is not given out.

People are allowed to see the list of subscribers by executing a who command. You are allowed to prevent people from seeing your name in the list of subscribers by setting the hide attribute.

No one else on the list can see your e-mail address or discover that you are a member of the list until you post a message to the list.

C8. Are commercial postings allowed? You are allowed to make commercial postings to the framcom list as long as they are relevant to Framingham and relatively infrequent. "Commercial" means that the primary purpose of your posting is to advertise something about your business or service -- advertising to sell your car, for example, doesn't fall under this guideline unless that's your business. "Relevant to Framingham" means that, for example, your business or service is located in Framingham, or you live in Framingham, or your posting is very likely to be of wide interest to Framingham residents. "Relatively infrequent" means that postings from your business or service should occur no more often than every twelve months or so.

Since one of the primary uses of the framcom list is for residents to exchange recommendations for and against local businesses, you should expect that advertising your business may spark discussion, both pro and con, about the business. Civil criticism of or concerns raised about your business will not normally be considered a personal attack.

These are guidelines, and, as always, the final judgment as to the appropriateness of a commercial posting rests with the list owner.

When supplying a recommendation for something, please remember that you're talking to a lot of people.

"I like Joe the plumber off of Waverly" just ain't gonna do it. Please specify some sort of reasonable contact info: A phone nr, an address, a website, preferably all of the above. Given the chance, and without that information, we'll just send it back and ask you to resubmit.

As appropriate, please consider asking people to send you their recommendations privately so you can summarize to the list in one concise message.

And remember that recommendations will end up on the frambors wiki .

Not only are recommendations read in email; they also end up trying to get into the wiki where hoards of people from all over the world will hear about these resources and jump for joy that they now have information on how to contact a good aroma therapist.

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